Manipulation
by Loud-Bass-Woman
Summary: After realising how manipulative his father is, Draco has become obsessed with manipulation. So obsessed, in fact, that he gets confused as to who’s manipulating whom.


A/N: Read, enjoy, review/flame. Get manipulated, whatever.

Disclaimer: Don't own a thing.

Warning: Malfoys, wands, manipulation. Naughty language.

**Manipulation**

"_Apologise, Draco." Lucius Malfoy's voice was cold and deadly._

_Draco shivered, and grimaced._

"_I . . . I'm . . . I'm sorry," he apologised to the filthy man standing in front of him, almost swallowing his tongue in disgust._

_Wormtail nodded, nervous but smug._

_The surrounding Death Eaters laughed loudly, mockingly._

_Draco looked at his father, cheeks burning with shame, and noticed that Lucius' eyes were two blocks of ice._

_Why did he humiliate him like this?_

Draco knocked on the door to his father's study, and waited for a reply.

"Come in," Lucius said curtly.

Draco's hands were in the pocket of his robes, his right hand curled around the wand tightly to try and stop his hand shaking.

"What?" his father snapped irritably, upon seeing it was him.

"I wanted to talk to you about something, Father," Draco said, his voice as clear as ice.

Lucius frowned.

"Can't you see I'm busy?"

"_Come here, hands on the desk."_

_Draco put his shaking hands on his father's desk._

"_Not on my papers, you stupid boy! I have been working on them for hours! Put them there!" Lucius commanded._

_Draco obediently moved his hands._

_Lucius flicked his wand, and Draco's hands were bound to the table with chains. Another flick, and there were two long nails poised a few inches above the middle of the back of his hands._

_The hands shook harder._

"_Do you know why I have brought you here?" his father demanded._

_Draco shook his head. "No," he said, his voice high-pitched._

_The nails moved down an inch._

"_Are you sure?" Lucius repeated dangerously._

_Draco swallowed._

"_I . . . I . . ." What was it he had done wrong? "I . . . I disappointed you?"_

"_Exactly. How?"_

"_I . . . I did not keep my calm in front of Severus."_

"_Good boy. And?"_

"_I . . . I don't know, Father."_

_The nails dropped another inch, so that Draco felt their sharp tips dig into the back of his hands lightly._

"_I don't know, Father!" he cried ore desperately. "I don't know, I don't!"_

_Lucius frowned. _

"_You shamed me! You made a reference to what goes on behind closed doors in the Malfoy family! Severus did not need to know that you rarely saw your mother, that she was rarely home. What if he had told the others? It would shame the family name!"_

"_I'm sorry, Father!" Draco yelled, for the nails were digging into his hands painfully now, drawing blood. "I'm sorry! I didn't know!"_

"_ARE YOU? ARE YOU SORRY?" Lucius yelled angrily._

"_YES! I'M SORRY!" Draco screamed, and the nails were lifted into the air, higher and higher, and then the nails whooshed down sharply and so quickly and-_

_CRACK._

_They splintered the wood of the table._

_Draco took shaking, slightly bleeding hands off the table, and tried to steady his breathing._

"Yes, Father, but this really is important. And I mean really. And I think you should listen." Draco said firmly.

Lucius frowned at his son's tone.

"I'm not so sure I like your tone, Draco. What have I told you about respecting your elders?"

Draco swallowed, but said what he was going to say anyway.

"I thought you taught me that one must respect whoever has earned that respect."

Lucius' eyes narrowed in anger.

"_Are you sorry?"_

"_Yes, Father, yes."_

_Affirmative._

"_Are you sure?"_

"_Yes, yes, just stop!"_

_Desperation._

"_Are you in pain, Draco?"_

"_Yes, Father, YES!"_

_An odd glint in the eye._

"_Have you learned your lesson?"_

"_I have, Father, I have."_

_A plan starting to form._

"What did you just say to me?" Lucius snarled.

Draco shrugged, not as affected by his Father's anger as he thought he should have been.

"I meant that you've never respected _me,_ so why the hell should I respect _you_?"

Draco smirked at his father's livid expression.

"_What. Did. You. Say. To. Me. Boy?_" he hissed.

Draco rolled his eyes.

"Oh, obviously I'm just _joking_," he mocked slightly.

His father frowned despite his anger. He could tell something was wrong.

Clever man.

"What are your hands doing in the pockets of your robes? Take them out!" he snapped. "It is impolite, and not like a Malfoy!"

"Take them out?" there was a strange glint in Draco's eye. "Are you sure?"

"Yes!" Lucius' frown deepened, unsure why his son was not showing any fear.

Smirking widely, Draco drew the wand.

Horrified, Lucius took a step back.

Draco's smirk widened.

He had never seen his father scared. He fancied he rather enjoyed it.

"Draco . . . son . . . I gave you everything you ever needed, everything you ever wanted . . . you had the best tutors, the best Quidditch trainers . . . the best brooms, the best books, the best robes, the best _everything_! Is this how you're going to repay me?"

Draco couldn't exactly pinpoint the emotion in his father's voice, as his father was usually emotionless, but he could tell that Lucius was starting to worry. After all, he was, for lack of a better word, _pleading_ with his son, something he had never done before in his life.

Pleading, straight away, just jumping to conclusions.

Draco smirked.

"Tsk, tsk, silly man. You're not even sure what I plan on doing with this wand," he said.

Lucius was just looking at his son, eyes wide with horror.

"The problem with manipulation, Father, is that you're never quite sure who's manipulating whom," Draco drawled.

The boy grinned, taking pride in the fact that his statement seemed to have thrown his father, and was the cause of the confusion splayed out all over his face.

Can't have Daddy confused, God no, the boy thought mockingly.

Draco took a step closer.

Lucius' eyes widened. He had realised that this wasn't Draco's wand a while ago – it was his own one. Draco had left his wand in the hall, and must have taken Lucius' from his robes some time earlier that morning. But now he was stepping closer, and Lucius' wand wasn't doing anything to get away from his son.

Draco took another step closer, a slightly manic smile on his face.

"Draco . . . what are you doing?" the man's voice was measured, carefully abused into sounding nonchalant, and not worried at all.

Pity Draco could see the fear so very evident in his father's eyes.

"Oh, nothing, Father, nothing. Just manipulating you, like you manipulated me for sixteen years of my life," the teenager said, his right hand fingering his father's wand.

"_Say you're sorry!"_

"_But Father, I-"_

_Pain._

"_Say it."_

"_Father-"_

_More pain._

"_SAY IT!"_

"_I'M SORRY!"_

_Pain pain pain PAIN_

Lucius turned around and made a run for the door, but Draco locked it with a spell from the man's own wand.

"Uh-uh-uh, Daddy. Not that way."

The older man turned around to face his son with blazing eyes and a snarl on his pale face.

"You . . . wouldn't . . . dare, Draco."

"Wouldn't I?" Draco raised an eyebrow, challenging his father, his left hand playing with his father's wand.

He bent it just the tiniest fraction.

"What are you doing?" Now Lucius couldn't disguise the fear in his voice. For him there was no way out.

"Just manipulating you, Father."

A second later, and Draco had conjured a dozen long, sharp nails, floating directly in front of his father's stomach and chest.

"Say 'I'm sorry'," Draco drawled slowly, mockingly, eyes glinting.

His father shook his head.

"No. Never."

The fear really was evident now.

"Say it." Draco said. The nails inched closer towards his father's body.

"No," Lucius shook his head, eyeing the nails with great fear.

He knew that Draco wouldn't think twice about thrusting them all into him.

"SAY IT!" Draco screamed, lifting his father's wand threateningly and the nails shot towards Lucius.

"I'M SORRY!" Lucius screamed, the nails stopping centimetres before him.

Draco looked immensely pleased.

"There. Now, don't you feel better?" he mocked. His father was pale and sweating, and Draco felt himself smile with satisfaction.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Draco cried suddenly, immobilising the other man. It wasn't his own wand, so he knew that the spell would wear off in around two minutes, but that was OK, because two minutes was more than enough to do what he needed to do.

"There's no way out." Draco whispered.

His fingers ghosted over his wand lightly, and he smiled, slightly manically.

"You should be sorry, Daddy," he breathed.

"Avada Kedavra."

Daily Prophet, 19th July 2004

AZKABAN MURDERER IN DENIAL

Eight years ago, the body of Draco Augustus Malfoy was found on the floor of his father's study, motionless and cold. Lucius Caesar Malfoy had been found cradling the boy's head in his arms, saying nonsense words weakly and callously, with tears leaking down his face.

Forensics had determined that the boy – only a mere sixteen years old – had been killed by the Killing Curse. Further tests showed that his father's wand was used, and Lucius Malfoy was instantly arrested for the murder of his son and a few other offences. He was to spend a life sentence in Azkaban.

Now, eight years on, Lucius Malfoy is still in a closely guarded cell in Azkaban, and he is still claiming that his son had turned Lucius' wand on himself.

Constant claims that the boy had taken his wand, left his own wand on the table in the hallway and then proceeded to lock both him and his father in the study with his father's wand, immobilised his father with his father's own wand, and then turned the wand on himself have been dismissed, as there is no evidence to support Mr Malfoy's statements, and all evidence that the Ministry of Magic have records of, point against this man's declarations.

It is widely thought that Lucius Malfoy lost his mind after killing his son with the Killing Curse, and his brain has still not accepted that fact.

Crazy or not, the wizarding world still sleeps well knowing that Lucius Malfoy is firmly behind bars.

"_There's no way out." Draco whispered. _

_His fingers ghosted over his wand lightly, and he smiled, slightly manically._

"_You should be sorry, Daddy," he breathed._

"_Avada Kedavra."_

_Lucius' eyes widened as his son's body dropped to the floor like a stone._

_Draco had turned Lucius' wand on himself._

_The spell wore off and Lucius felt himself free to move, but he could only stare at the body of his only son, motionless on the floor. The boy had a small smile on his face._

_After a few moments of shocked silence, Lucius dropped down to the floor near his son._

"_What have you done?" he whispered. Draco didn't answer. "What have you done, you stupid boy WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!" Lucius yelled. Draco still didn't answer._

"_You stupid, stupid boy! Don't you understand, I did it for you, I did it all for you! You would have been great, you would have been magnificent, you . . . you . . ." And for the first time in well over ten years, Lucius Malfoy started crying._

_He cradled his son's head in his hands, and wept._

"_Draco, you stupid child, Draco, you stupid, silly young boy, Draco, DracoDracoDracoDracoDraco, what have you done to yourself, come back, comebackcomebackcomebackcomeback."_

_And that is how he was found by Ministry officials._

_Cradling his son's head in his arms, weeping, with his wand carelessly discarded by his side._

Manipulated.

End


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